阅读说明：本技术 掩膜版及滤光片 (Mask and optical filter ) 是由 王红光 王菁晶 范刚洪 王群 徐广军 于 2019-11-26 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种掩膜版及滤光片,其中,所述掩膜版包括：基板；吸收层,位于所述基板上；多个多边形开口,位于所述吸收层内且暴露出所述基板,所述多边形开口具有多个角部,相邻所述多边形开口的其中一个所述角部相对设置。利用本发明实施例提供的掩膜版形成的滤光片上的间隔柱,可以降低相邻间隔柱之间的相连高度,提高间隔柱尺寸的测量准确性。(The utility model provides a mask and light filter, wherein, the mask includes: a substrate; an absorption layer on the substrate; the substrate is provided with a plurality of polygonal openings, the polygonal openings are positioned in the absorption layer and expose the substrate, the polygonal openings are provided with a plurality of corner parts, and the corner parts adjacent to the polygonal openings are oppositely arranged. The spacer pillars on the optical filter formed by the mask provided by the embodiment of the invention can reduce the connecting height between adjacent spacer pillars and improve the measurement accuracy of the size of the spacer pillars.)

1. A reticle, comprising:

a substrate;

an absorption layer on the substrate;

the substrate is provided with a plurality of polygonal openings, the polygonal openings are positioned in the absorption layer and expose the substrate, the polygonal openings are provided with a plurality of corner parts, and the corner parts adjacent to the polygonal openings are oppositely arranged.

2. The reticle of claim 1, wherein the oppositely disposed corners partially overlap each other, and wherein a distance between vertices of the overlapping corners is equal to or less than 14% of a size of the polygonal opening.

3. The reticle of claim 1, wherein the oppositely disposed corners have a space therebetween.

4. The reticle of claim 2, wherein the polygonal opening is in the shape of a regular polygon.

5. The reticle of claim 4, wherein the size of the polygonal opening is a perpendicular distance from a center of the regular polygon to any one side of the regular polygon.

6. The reticle of claim 1, wherein a distance between centers of adjacent polygonal openings is 20-80 microns.

7. The reticle of claim 1, further comprising: and the semi-permeable film layer is positioned on the polygonal opening.

8. The mask of claim 7, wherein the material of the semi-permeable film layer comprises chromium or a chromium compound.

9. The mask of claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises quartz glass or calcium fluoride.

10. The mask of claim 1, wherein the absorbing layer is made of chromium, or the absorbing layer is made of an inorganic material selected from the group consisting of molybdenum silicide, zirconium silicate, and silicon nitride.

11. An optical filter, comprising:

a substrate;

the black matrix is positioned on the substrate and is provided with a plurality of opening areas exposing the surface of the substrate;

a pigment layer located within the plurality of open areas;

the spacer pillars, which are formed by using the mask manufacturing method of any one of claims 1 to 10, are located on the black matrix between the adjacent pigment layers, and the connecting height of the adjacent spacer pillars is less than or equal to 40%.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of liquid crystal display devices, in particular to a mask and an optical filter.

Background

With the progress and development of technology, Liquid Crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) are widely used, and the TFT-LCDs have low power consumption, excellent image quality, and high production yield, and thus gradually occupy the Display field. The conventional liquid crystal display generally includes: the liquid crystal display panel comprises a TFT array substrate, an optical filter and a liquid crystal layer positioned between the TFT array substrate and the optical filter. Wherein, a shading layer and a filtering layer are formed on the optical filter. In order to fix the liquid crystal in the liquid crystal well in a certain space and avoid the problem of uneven display caused by the flow of the liquid crystal, a plurality of spacing columns (Photo spacers, PS for short) are formed between the TFT array substrate and the optical filter.

In the prior art, a light resistor is used for manufacturing the spacing columns, and in order to avoid the uneven extension deformation of each spacing column caused by the high temperature of the liquid crystal display, a main spacing column and an auxiliary spacing column with a section difference are manufactured on an optical filter in the prior art. The step difference between the main spacing column and the auxiliary spacing column means that: the upper surface of the secondary spacer is lower than the upper surface of the primary spacer.

A common method for manufacturing a main spacer and an auxiliary spacer with a step difference in the prior art includes a Half-tone Mask method (HTM for short). However, with the development of the liquid crystal display technology, the distance requirement between the spacers is smaller and smaller, when the spacers are formed by using the halftone mask method, the bottom of each two adjacent spacers is easily connected to the upper bottom of each spacer, and when the connecting height between the adjacent spacers is too high, the height of each spacer and the size of each upper bottom of each spacer cannot be accurately measured, so that the characteristic control of each spacer is adversely affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention solves the technical problem of providing a mask and an optical filter, which can reduce the connecting height between adjacent formed spacing columns and are beneficial to improving the measuring accuracy of the spacing columns.

To solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a mask, including: a substrate; an absorption layer on the substrate; the substrate is provided with a plurality of polygonal openings, the polygonal openings are positioned in the absorption layer and expose the substrate, the polygonal openings are provided with a plurality of corner parts, and the corner parts adjacent to the polygonal openings are oppositely arranged.

Optionally, the corners disposed oppositely are partially overlapped, and the distance between the vertexes of the overlapped corners is less than or equal to 14% of the size of the polygonal opening.

Optionally, there is a space between the oppositely disposed corners.

Optionally, the polygonal opening is in the shape of a regular polygon.

Optionally, the size of the polygonal opening is the vertical distance from the center of the regular polygon to any one side of the regular polygon.

Optionally, the distance between the centers of the adjacent polygonal openings is 20-80 micrometers.

Optionally, the method further includes: and the semi-permeable film layer is positioned on the polygonal opening.

Optionally, the material of the semi-permeable film layer includes chromium or a chromium compound.

Optionally, the substrate is made of quartz glass or calcium fluoride.

Optionally, the material of the absorption layer is chromium, or the material of the absorption layer is an inorganic material composed of molybdenum silicide, zirconium silicate and silicon nitride.

The present invention also provides an optical filter, comprising: a substrate; the black matrix is positioned on the substrate and is provided with a plurality of opening areas exposing the surface of the substrate; a pigment layer located within the plurality of open areas; the spacer pillars, which are formed by using the mask manufacturing method of any one of claims 1 to 10, are located on the black matrix between the adjacent pigment layers, and the connecting height of the adjacent spacer pillars is less than or equal to 40%.

Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention has the following beneficial effects:

when the spacer columns with the closer distance are formed, the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings are oppositely arranged, when the spacer columns are formed by using the negative photoresist, the exposure amount received by the areas, corresponding to the corners of the polygonal openings, on the negative photoresist is small, the corners of the polygonal openings are insufficiently exposed on the negative photoresist, the insufficiently exposed areas on the negative photoresist are subsequently neutralized by the developing solution, namely, the areas, corresponding to the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings, on the negative photoresist are partially removed, so that the connecting height between the adjacent formed spacer columns is reduced, and the data measurement accuracy of the spacer columns can be improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a mask according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of a reticle in a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3 to 5 are schematic views of polygonal openings in the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a top view of a reticle in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7-8 are schematic views of a reticle opening in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a filter according to an embodiment of the present invention;

figure 10 is a cross-sectional view of two spacer posts connected.

Detailed Description

As is known from the background art, as the technology of the liquid crystal display is developed, the distance between the spacers is smaller and smaller. In the liquid crystal display, a main spacing column is arranged at every several auxiliary spacing columns, so that the density of the auxiliary spacing columns is greater than that of the main spacing columns, and the problem of high connection height between the adjacent auxiliary spacing columns is easy to occur. The height or bottom size of the spacer is usually measured by means of light and shade contrast of images or acquisition of three-dimensional images, and when the connecting height of two adjacent auxiliary spacers is too high, image acquisition inaccuracy is caused, so that the measured data of the spacer is inaccurate.

The connection height refers to the percentage of the vertical distance from the point where the adjacent spacers are connected to the bottoms of the spacers to the height of the spacers, and generally speaking, when the connection height is greater than or equal to 80%, two connected spacers are considered as one spacer during image acquisition; when the connection height is more than 40% and less than 80%, the image acquisition is unstable, and sometimes the image acquisition is considered to be one spacer, and sometimes the image acquisition is considered to be two spacers; when the connection height is less than or equal to 40%, the image acquisition can stably grab two spacers, so that the connection degree of adjacent spacers cannot be too high, and inaccurate data measurement of the height, the size and the like of the spacers can be caused.

Can adopt to enlarge the distance between the mask version opening that is used for forming the interval post among the prior art, it is not continuous or the height that links to each other lower to make the interval post that forms, however, the interval post centre spacing that forms is less at needs, when the interval post size that forms simultaneously is great, the distance between the mask version opening can't be enlarged to the width that satisfies the adjacent interval post and links to each other the height lower, if will increase the distance between the mask version opening, the centre spacing of interval post must be increased, perhaps reduce the size of interval post, can't satisfy the technological requirement.

In order to solve the above problem, the inventors have studied to provide a reticle having a plurality of polygonal openings having a plurality of corners, and one of the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings is disposed opposite to the other. The corners of the polygonal openings are not sufficiently exposed on the negative photoresist, areas which are not sufficiently exposed subsequently are neutralized and removed by the developing solution, the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings are oppositely arranged, areas which are adjacent to each other and formed subsequently are partially removed, and when the adjacent spacers with smaller center spacing are formed, the connecting height between the adjacent spacers can be reduced under the condition that the size of the spacers is met, so that the data measurement accuracy of the spacers is improved.

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

First embodiment

Fig. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a mask according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 2 is a top view of the mask according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2 in combination, the mask 1 includes: a substrate 10; an absorption layer 20, the absorption layer 20 being located on the substrate 10; a plurality of polygonal openings 30 located in the absorption layer 20 and exposing the substrate 10, wherein the polygonal openings 30 have a plurality of corners 31, and one of the corners 31 of the adjacent polygonal openings 30 is oppositely disposed.

In this embodiment, the substrate 10 is made of transparent quartz glass; in other embodiments, the material of the substrate 10 may also be calcium fluoride or other suitable materials.

In this embodiment, the material of the absorption layer 20 is chromium; chromium is used as an absorption layer material, and is completely opaque to light, and the deposition and etching of chromium are relatively easy, so that the absorption layer made of chromium is easily formed on the substrate 10.

In other embodiments, the absorption layer 20 may also be an inorganic layer composed of molybdenum silicide, zirconium silicate and silicon nitride, or a metal layer composed of chromium and iron oxide, and the absorption layer 20 may also include an anti-reflection coating and/or other layers.

In this embodiment, an adhesion layer (not shown) is further disposed between the absorption layer 20 and the substrate 10, and the adhesion layer is made of chromium oxide or chromium nitride for increasing adhesion between the absorption layer 20 and the substrate 10.

In this embodiment, the polygonal openings 30 allow light to pass through the openings without being absorbed by the absorption layer 20, and the light passing through the polygonal openings 30 is exposed to the negative photoresist to form a pattern corresponding to the polygonal openings 30.

Referring to fig. 2, in the present embodiment, the plurality of polygonal openings 30 are arranged in an array in two perpendicular directions.

In the present embodiment, the plurality of polygonal openings 30 are arranged in a matrix form along the transverse direction (X direction) and the longitudinal direction (Y direction).

In other embodiments, the plurality of polygonal openings may not be arranged in an array, and the arrangement of the polygonal openings is not limited in the present invention.

In this embodiment, the fact that one of the corners 31 of the adjacent polygonal openings 30 is oppositely disposed means that a connecting line A1a2 between the vertices of the adjacent two corners 31 is parallel to a connecting line B1B2 between the centers of the polygonal openings 30, and the sides of the adjacent polygonal openings 30 are not parallel to each other. The arrangement can ensure that the nearest position between two adjacent polygonal openings is an opposite corner, the nearest position is an insufficiently exposed corner, and after the negative photoresist layer corresponding to the corner region is removed, the distance between the adjacent spacing pillars can be increased or the connecting height can be reduced.

In this embodiment, A1a2 and B1B2 are located on the same straight line.

In this embodiment, the mask 1 is used to form an optical filter with a small distance between the spacers, and the position of the polygonal opening 30 corresponds to the position of the spacers on the optical filter. The distance between the centers of the adjacent polygonal openings is 20-80 micrometers.

When the negative photoresist layer is exposed by using the mask 1, the area of the corner 31 is not fully exposed in the negative photoresist layer, and the insufficiently exposed negative photoresist is neutralized and removed by the developing solution, so that when the spacer pillars are formed, the area opposite to the corner between the adjacent spacer pillars on the negative photoresist layer is partially removed, thereby reducing the connecting height between the adjacent spacer pillars.

The mask 1 further comprises: and a semi-permeable membrane layer (not shown) positioned over the polygonal openings 30. The semi-permeable membrane layer has the difference of transmittance, and the exposure amount of light passing through the polygonal opening 30 and reaching the negative photoresist layer is different by using the semi-permeable membranes with different transmittances, so that the spacers with different heights can be formed, namely, the main spacer and the auxiliary spacer with the segment difference can be formed.

In this embodiment, the semipermeable membrane layer is made of a chromium compound; in other embodiments, the material of the semi-permeable membrane layer may also be chromium.

Fig. 3 to 5 are schematic views of the polygonal opening shown in fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 3, in the present embodiment, the corners 31 are disposed opposite to each other and partially overlap each other, and a distance between the vertices of the overlapping corners 31 is equal to or less than 14% of the size of the polygonal opening 30. I.e., d0 is shown in FIG. 3 to be 14% less than or equal to d 1.

If the distance between the vertices of the overlapped corners 31 is greater than 7% of the size of the polygonal openings 30, it means that the overlapping portion between the adjacent polygonal openings 30 is too large, which results in that the connecting height between the adjacent spacers obtained after exposure is still too high to meet the requirement.

Referring to fig. 3 to 5, in the present embodiment, the polygonal opening 30 is shaped as a regular polygon.

When the shape of the opening on the mask is a regular polygon, the shape of the spacer pillar exposed on the optical filter is relatively close to a cylinder, and the shape of the polygonal opening 30 may be a square, a regular pentagon, a regular octagon, a regular dodecagon, etc.

In other embodiments, the polygonal opening 30 may not be a regular polygon, such as a rectangle.

In this embodiment, the size of the polygonal opening 30 is a perpendicular distance from the center of the regular polygon to any one side of the regular polygon. As shown by d1 in fig. 3, d2 in fig. 4, and d3 in fig. 5.

In other embodiments, referring to fig. 4, the oppositely disposed corners 31 have a space therebetween.

Specifically, the overlapping or spacing between the corners 31 may be determined according to the center-to-center distance between adjacent spacers to be formed or the specification of the spacers or the required connection height. For example, when the specification of the spacer to be formed is determined, but the center-to-center distance requirement of the adjacent spacers is small, and the polygonal openings 30 have a gap therebetween which cannot satisfy the center-to-center distance requirement of the adjacent spacers, the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings may be overlapped by a portion to satisfy both the distance requirement and the specification requirement of the spacers, and the connection height between the adjacent spacers is low.

According to the mask provided by the embodiment of the invention, the corners of the adjacent polygonal openings are oppositely arranged, and the connection height between the adjacent formed spacing columns is reduced by utilizing the characteristic that the corner regions are insufficiently exposed and the parts corresponding to the corner regions on the negative photoresist layer can be removed.

Second embodiment

Fig. 6 is a top view of a mask according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 7 to 8 are schematic views of openings of the mask according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, referring to fig. 6, the mask 100 includes: a substrate (not shown); an absorption layer 200 on the substrate; and a plurality of mask openings 300 which are positioned in the absorption layer and expose the substrate, wherein an interval 400 is arranged between every two adjacent mask openings 300, and the width of the interval 400 is more than or equal to 14% of the size of each mask opening 300.

If the width of the space 400 is less than 14% of the size of the reticle opening 300, the too close distance between adjacent reticle openings 300 will result in too high a connecting height of the spacer pillars formed by the final exposure, which affects the spacer pillar size measurement.

In this embodiment, the materials of the substrate and the absorption layer 200 are the same as those of the first embodiment, and are not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 7 to 8, the shape of the reticle opening 300 includes a circle or a polygon.

Referring to fig. 7, when the reticle openings 300 are circular, the width of the space 400 between adjacent reticle openings 300 is the distance d4 between two nearest circular tangents perpendicular to the circle center line O1O2, and the size of the reticle openings 300 is the radius of the circle.

Referring to fig. 8, when reticle opening 300 has a polygonal shape, reticle opening 300 has a plurality of sides 310, and one of the sides of adjacent reticle opening 300 is disposed parallel to each other.

When the mask openings 300 are regular polygons, the mask openings include squares, regular pentagons, regular hexagons, and the like, the interval width between adjacent mask openings 300 is the distance d6 between two parallel sides, and the size of the mask openings 300 is the perpendicular distance d5 from the center of each regular polygon to any one side of each regular polygon.

Of course, the shape of the mask opening of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned shape, and may be an oval shape, a rectangular shape, or the like.

In the embodiment, the distance between the adjacent openings of the mask is increased, so that the connection height between the adjacent spacing columns formed by exposure can be prevented from being too high, and the accuracy of the dimension measurement of the spacing columns is improved.

Correspondingly, an optical filter is further provided in an embodiment of the present invention, fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of the optical filter in an embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 10 is a cross-sectional view of two connected spacers.

Referring to fig. 9, the optical filter includes: a substrate 110; a black matrix 120 on the substrate 110, the black matrix 120 having a plurality of open regions therein to expose a surface of the substrate 110; a pigment layer 130 located within the plurality of open areas; and the spacing columns 140 are formed by using the mask, are positioned on the black matrix 120 between the adjacent pigment layers 130, and are connected with each other at a height of less than or equal to 40%.

Referring to fig. 10, the connection height of 40% or less means that the vertical distance H from the point where two connected spacers are connected to the bottom of the spacer is 40% or less, that is, the connection height is H/H × 100%.

When the spacer 140 is formed by using the mask 1 of the first embodiment, when the distance between the vertices of the oppositely disposed corners is equal to 14% of the size of the polygonal opening, the coupling height of the spacer is 40%; when the distance between the vertices of the oppositely disposed corners is less than 14% of the polygonal opening size; the connected height of the spacer pillars is formed to be less than 40%.

When the mask 100 of the second embodiment is used to form the spacers 140, when the width of the space 400 is equal to 14% of the size of the mask opening 300, the coupling height of the spacers is 40%; when the width of the spacer 400 is greater than 14% of the size of the reticle opening 300, the connected height of the spacer pillars formed is less than 40%.

According to the optical filter provided by the embodiment of the invention, the connecting height of adjacent spacing columns is less than or equal to 40%, the stability of image acquisition when the size and the height of the spacing columns are measured can be ensured, and the accuracy of data is ensured.

Although the present invention is disclosed above, the present invention is not limited thereto. Various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.